Washington Spirit

The 2018 campaign begins with a trip west, followed by a home opener that will be broadcast nationally on Lifetime

The NWSL has revealed the home openers for the 2018 season, with the Washington Spirit opening the year with a a challenging road game against Seattle Reign FC. The Spirit will play their first home game the following weekend, hosting the Orlando Pride at the Maryland Soccerplex.

The North Carolina Courage announced on Tuesday that they have acquired Dunn's rights and an international roster spot via a trade with the Washington Spirit. In exchange, the Spirit received Taylor Smith and Ashley Hatch.

Dunn, 25, was most recently on the books of Chelsea after signing with the English outfit in 2017, but played for Washington for three seasons prior to that.

A separate deal saw the Spirit trade Lindsay Agnew and the 6th overall pick to pick up the 3rd overall pick in Thursday's draft

The NWSL offseason kicked into a higher gear today thanks in no small part to a pair of Washington Spirit trades. Washington traded the NWSL rights to Crystal Dunn (currently playing for Chelsea in England) and an international roster spot to the North Carolina Courage, picking up right back Taylor Smith and forward Ashley Hatch.

The Washington Spirit striker will be playing in Spain during the NWSL offseason

Washington Spirit forward Francisca Ordega will spend her offseason in Spain on loan with Atletico Madrid. Ordega remains under contract with the Spirit, and with the Spanish season ending in March, should be back just in time for the start of the 2018 NWSL season.

The Washington Spirit's longest tenured player will spend this winter in Australia

Washington Spirit midfielder Tori Huster will return to Australia to play for the W-League's Newcastle Jets. It's a familiar move for Huster, who has previously spent time with Newcastle in 2012 and 2014. Additionally, the 28 year old spent the 2013 Australian season playing for the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The list of NWSL allocated players was revealed by the league today, with the Washington Spirit having four players on the list. Rose Lavelle, Mallory Pugh, and Taylor Smith will be Federation Players via the United States national team, while draft pick Rebecca Quinn has the same status through the Canadian national team.

A year after having no one on the U.S. roster for this tournament, the Spirit are well-represented in Jill Ellis' squad

United States women's national team head coach Jill Ellis has named 26 players to the preliminary roster for the upcoming SheBelieves Cup, and nearly one-fifth of the call-ups play for the Washington Spirit.

Once again, late-game heroics from Jess Fishlock helped Reign FC finish the season on a positive note.

In their final game of 2017, Seattle Reign FC visited the Washington Spirit, looking to end the season on a positive note, give some depth players an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities and help evaluate what the team has going forward into 2018.

Jill Ellis has selected 22 players to face New Zealand later this month

Mallory Pugh is the sole Washington Spirit representative on the latest United States women's national team roster. Jill Ellis called up 22 players for an upcoming pair of friendlies against New Zealand. The USWNT will play the Kiwis on September 15th at Dick's Sporting Goods Park and on September 19th at Nippert Stadium, the home of FC Cincinnati.

This morning the Washington Spirit waived defender Alyssa Kleiner. Kleiner played two seasons for the Spirit and appeared in 35 games. With the amount of additions the Spirit have made this offseason, several more players will need to be waived before the season begins.

It's a ghoulish business, this, the parceling off of a roster from a folded team. But players need a place to play, and short of actually setting a reasonable deadline for ownership negotiations that would have given people proper time to find a job, the league has done its best to incentivize teams to draft players with relaxed rules around salary caps and roster limits for those drafted.

Boston Breakers forward Adriana Leon has been nominated for Canada Soccer's 2017 player of the year.

It's a very nice nod to a player who was seemingly out of the squad a couple of years ago but worked her way back in, notching three goals in six games for her country on top of six goals and six assists for her club.

Two injury-riddled teams are looking to figure some things out for the future

2017 has been a rough season for both the Washington Spirit and the Boston Breakers, who sit 9th and 10th in the NWSL standings at the moment. Injuries have hit both teams, as has a tendency to not turn good performances into actual results.

The moves keep coming for the Spirit, who have sent their captain to Florida for the second straight year

Canadian international and starting center back Shelina Zadorsky will start the 2018 NWSL season in Orlando after a trade that sends her to the Orlando Pride in exchange for goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe and the Pride's natural first round draft pick for 2019.

The Spirit added another Canada national team player with the #3 overall pick

With the third overall pick in the 2018 NWSL draft, the Washington Spirit selected Duke midfielder/defender Rebecca Quinn. Quinn, 22, already has 33 caps for Canada at the international level, and has recently been a regular partner for Washington's captain Shelina Zadorsky in central defense.

An injury-plagued Spirit side faces a Sky Blue side on the brink of elimination

With the season winding to a close, the Washington Spirit face Sky Blue FC tonight, a team fighting to stay in playoff contention. Playoffs aren't a possibility for the Spirit and Washington, hard-hit by injuries, only has 15 players available this evening.

The Washington Spirit used the first pick in the 2018 NWSL draft to select midfielder Andi Sullivan. An emerging fixture for the USWNT, Sullivan had a dominant NCAA career with the Stanford Cardinal, capped off by winning the 2017 M.

Grab a drink and stay in wifi range, because the Washington Spirit are going to be all kinds of busy today

Following a 2017 season that went badly in just about every way imaginable, the Washington Spirit find themselves with a great chance to rebound quickly. Two days after acquiring Taylor Smith and Ashley Hatch, the Spirit have the first and third picks in this year's NWSL draft.

It's the second game the Spirit will play in Virginia during the 2018 preseason

The Washington Spirit have announced a second preseason game for the 2018 season, confirming today that they will face the North Carolina Courage at Richmond's City Stadium on March 17 at 7:00pm. The game will be the first ever appearance by an NWSL side in the city of Richmond.

Hi, I'll be your Caitlin today. I don't kill it like she does, but I'll give it a shot. Since today is the last day for England's transfer window, if you have a rooting interest, feel free to visit the SBN mothership for more.

An injury to Estelle Johnson overshadowed a hard-fought loss to the league leaders

Despite finally managing to score on the North Carolina Courage after two shutout losses earlier this year, the Washington Spirit still couldn't solve their nemesis. North Carolina completed a season sweep, winning 3-2 thanks to two goals from Jess McDonald and another from Samantha Mewis.

The Spirit assistant coach and Maryland DA director is taking over New Jersey's NWSL club

Washington Spirit assistant coach Denise Reddy will leave the Spirit to become head coach at Sky Blue FC. Reddy joined the Spirit alongside current head coach Jim Gabarra in 2016 after coaching for several years in Europe and as an assistant coach for the WPS-era Chicago Red Stars.

Despite a late equalizer, the Spirit fell to goals from Christen Press and Kristie Mewis

It was a familiar tune Saturday night at the Maryland Soccerplex, where the Washington Spirit fell 2-1 to the Chicago Red Stars. The Spirit had plenty of possession in the final third but exited the first half without a shot on goal, gave up a goal to Kristie Mewis - the player Washington just traded to Chicago - midway through the half.

After the Chicago Red Stars acquired Kristie Mewis in a trade with the Washington Spirit on Monday, Chicago waived rookie midfielder Morgan Proffitt to make room. Today, the Spirit claimed Proffitt off the waiver wire.

The Washington Spirit started to make moves for next year with today's trade that sent Kristie Mewis to the Chicago Red Stars in exchange for either their natural 1st round draft pick or the Seattle Reign's first rounders (which Chicago hold), whichever is higher.

The Thorns shut out the Washington Spirit 4-0 today, the Thorns' sixth straight home win and 12th win of the season. The win means that with a Sky Blue loss or draw tomorrow, Portland will clinch a playoff berth.

With Hayley Raso sitting out due to yellow card accumulation, Mark Parsons started Allie Long at striker.

Two corner kicks and a penalty call made the Washington Spirit's injury woes worse on Saturday afternoon as the Spirit fell 4-0 on the road against the Portland Thorns. Washington posted a good first fifteen minutes but then Portland turned the tide and scored three goals in the first half.

The Rest

While the full schedule for the 2018 NWSL season won't be unveiled until next week, the league provided a preview by announcing home openers for all nine teams. Seattle Reign FC will be at home for the opening weekend of NWSL play, hosting the Washington Spirit on Saturday, March 24 at 7 p.

The Houston Dash announced on Tuesday that they had acquired Lindsay Agnew and the number six pick in the 2018 draft from the Washington Spirit in exchange for the third overall selection of the 2018 NWSL College Draft. The forward played in eight games for the Spirit in 2017 and tallied one assist.

The World Cup and Olympic champion will also serve as technical advisor to both Spirit Development Academy teams

The Washington Spirit have named USWNT legend Briana Scurry to their technical staff, where she will function as the team's first assistant coach as well as being an advisor for the Maryland and Virginia Development Academy programs.

Seattle Reign FC goalkeeper Madalyn Schiffel has announced her retirement from professional soccer, completing a two-year professional career that saw her play with Avaldsnes IL in the Norwegian Toppserien in 2016 before coming to Seattle as part of a trade with the Washington Spirit last November.

After a rousing 3-0 away victory over the Washington Spirit this past weekend, Adriana Leon has been named the NWSL player of the week. She recorded a goal and an assist in that game and was generally anywhere the Breakers tried to push at the Spirit 18-yard box.

Washington Spirit center back Whitney Church was named NWSL Player of the Week by the NWSL Media Association for her performance in the Spirit's 2-1 comeback win against Sky Blue FC this weekend. Church scored her first-ever professional goal and also contributed to a excellent defensive performance against a club featuring the league's leading goal scorer.

The Washington Spirit announced tonight that goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe will miss the remainder of the 2017 season due to a medical leave of absence. Labbe, after starting the first 16 games of Washington's season, has not played in four of the club's last five games, and had been listed as out in recent weeks on the league's official injury report.

Happy Wednesday folks. My thoughts continue to be with the people of Houston, Rockport/Port Aransas, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur and the rest of the Texas Gulf Coast. I continue to check in with family and friends that are down in Houston, and while all of them are thankfully safe, many others are not out of the woods.